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Ardea - Species in
Ardeidae - - Classification -
- Ardeidae
- Ciconiiformes
- Aves
- Chordata
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Ardea herodias Linnaeus, 1758
Great blue heron
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Classification / Names Common names | Synonyms | CoL | ITIS | WoRMS
Aves | Ciconiiformes | Ardeidae
Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology
Others; freshwater; brackish. Boreal
Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Introductions
Northeast Pacific: Canada.
Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age
Maturity: Lm ? range ? - ? cm Max length : 130 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 94965)
Short description Morphology
Eagle-sized wingspan; grey-blue plumage; long, dagger-like yellow-bill; red thighs (Ref. 94965).
Dependent on healthy, uncontaminated coastal wetlands and estuaries for feeding. Wades in shallow water whilst foraging. Forms colonies. Piscivorous. In Florida Bay, natural feeding supplemented by "panhandling" association with humans where they feed on bait fish from locals and developed begging behavior from residents. In Stanley Park Zoo in Vancouver, British Columbia, a large colony is able to persist in close proximity to human activities for over 78 years. In Florida Bay, population decline of 30-40% due to hurricanes were linked to nesting and foraging habitat degradation (Ref. 87784).
Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae
Colonies in the Strait of Georgia have high rates of reproductive success (Ref. 95040).
Main reference
References | Coordinator | Collaborators
Elliott, J.E., R.W. Butler, R.J. Norstrom and P.E. Whitehead. 1989. (Ref. 95040)
IUCN Red List Status
(Ref. 130435: Version 2024-2)
Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 13 August 2020
CITES status (Ref. 108899)
Not Evaluated
CMS (Ref. 116361)
Not Evaluated
Threat to humans
Harmless
Human uses
| FishSource |
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Trophic Ecology
Ecology
Population dynamics
Growth
Max. ages / sizes
Length-weight rel.
Length-length rel.
Length-frequencies
Mass conversion
Recruitment
Abundance
Max. ages / sizes
Length-weight rel.
Length-length rel.
Length-frequencies
Mass conversion
Recruitment
Abundance
Life cycle
Distribution
Human Related
Aquaculture profiles
Stamps, coins, misc.
Stamps, coins, misc.
Outreach
References
Internet sources
BHL | BOLD Systems | CISTI | DiscoverLife | FAO(Publication : search) | Fishipedia | GenBank (genome, nucleotide) | GloBI | Gomexsi | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | PubMed | Tree of Life | Wikipedia (Go, Search) | Zoological Record